Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Expendables 3′ Can’t Keep Up With the Guardians or the Turtles

A trio of newcomers entered the box office arena this weekend, but two battle-hardened and grizzled champions kept them at bay, holding onto the top two spots and making it look easy. Sorry, newbies: This top 10 still belongs to 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy.'

Film

Weekend

Per Screen

1

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

$28,400,000 (-56.7)

$7,136

$117,642,000

2

Guardians of the Galaxy

$24,735,000 (-41.3)

$6,691

$222,281,000

3

Let's Be Cops

$17,700,000

$5,721

$26,107,000

4

The Expendables 3

$16,200,000

$5,029

$16,200,000

5

The Giver

$12,760,000

$4,249

$12,760,000

6

Into the Storm

$7,720,000 (-55.5)

$2,248

$31,341,000

7

The Hundred-Foot Journey

$7,109,000 (-35.3)

$3,480

$23,619,000

8

Lucy

$5,317,000 (-44.0)

$2,110

$107,537,000

9

Step Up: All In

$2,700,000 (-58.3)

$1,303

$11,849,000

10

Boyhood

$2,150,000 (+8.9)

$2,789

$13,801,000

Despite a large drop-off from its opening (typical for big movies like this), 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' held onto the number one slot, grossing $28 million. With a current total of $117 million, the much-maligned adaptation is overcoming negative reviews and is on track to gross something in the neighborhood of $175 million or no. That's not bad at all. At the very least, it certainly justifies a sequel and that's all that matters to Paramount.

In second place, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' took a smaller drop and actually gave the Turtles a run for their money, grossing $24 million for a $222 million total. At this rate, Marvel's space opera should becoming the highest grossing film of 2014 in a week or two, but $300 million may end up proving elusive. Still, this is already a huge victory for a film that was a big question mark a month ago.

But let's take a look at the newcomers. The most successful of the bunch was 'Let's Be Cops,' which opened on a Wednesday before launching into a $16 million weekend. After its first five days, the comedy has made $26 million, which is pretty good, but not amazing considering the $40 million-plus grosses of some other comedies this year. Still, it's a strong start and unless something completely derails it, it should be okay.

Less successful was 'The Expendables 3,' which many people expected to win the weekend. Not even that controversial PG-13 rating could save it from the lowest opening in franchise history -- that $16 million practically guarantees that there won't be an 'Expendables 4.' Well, at least not in theaters. This thing could live forever on DVD.

And that brings us to 'The Giver,' which opened with a fairly dismal $12 million. The marketing may have attempted to give the film a 'Hunger Games' sheen, but that kind of money was never in the cards. The silver lining here is that this film was made on the cheap and there's a chance that it could possibly break even.

There weren't too many surprises in the rest of the top 10. 'Into the Storm' continued to underperform, 'The Hundred-Foot Journey' took a small drop as older audiences started to flock to it, 'Lucy' crossed the $100 million mark and 'Step Up: All In' continued to bomb. However, it all ends with the surprising return of 'Boyhood,' which re-entered the top 10 after several weeks of hanging around the fringes.